Marches in Guerrero mark 3rd anniversary

Parents of the 43 missing students of Atyotzinapa continue to march

Yesterday was the third anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college in Guerrero after a night of violence in the city of Iguala.

The parents marked the date with a protest in the city, accompanied by a marching band and current students of the college, along with representatives of the CETEG teachers’ union and local non-governmental organizations.

The marchers charged that three years on the case is clearly marred by impunity, as no major progress has been made by authorities in finding the missing students alive or in punishing the real culprits.

The father of Julio César Mondragón Fontes, one of the students who lost their lives on the night of September 26-27, 2014, and whose tortured corpse was later found, said the omissions of the three levels of government, along with society at large, have allowed organized crime to prosper.

“Organized crime,” he said, “has won.”

Earlier in the day the parents were in Mexico City to demand that the federal government prioritizes the search for their sons.

Members of the United Front of Normal Schools of Guerrero state (Funpeg) marched in Chilpancingo and denounced the stance taken by the federal Attorney General’s office (PGR), which they claimed has done little to move beyond the initial findings of the investigation.

Those findings were labeled the “historic truth” in January 2015 by the attorney general at the time, when it was concluded that the students were rounded up by authorities in Iguala in collusion with a criminal gang, which killed them and burned their bodies in a garbage dump.